1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to the field of networks. More particularly, the present invention is related to a system and method for establishing a peer-to-peer IT (Information Technology) backbone.
2. Description
In large data centers and/or corporate environments, an IT (Information Technology) server may manage a thousand or more client computers on their network. When an IT server pushes configuration changes to the client computers in its network, the IT server must maintain a point-to-point connection to each client computer to transfer the data. This not only causes a lot of traffic on the network, but also consumes a large amount of the IT server's time. The IT server then becomes the single point of failure. If the IT server goes down, then all of the client computers on the network have essentially lost their external resources.
Often times, there is a need for the IT server to disseminate updates as quickly as possible. For example, when a virus attack is taking place, large data centers or corporate environments need to quickly disseminate a patch to their corresponding workstations to prevent the virus from infecting their network. Having the IT server disseminate these updates using one-to-one links with each client computer that it services is very time consuming and places a heavy burden on the IT server's ability to manage efficiently.
Thus, what is needed is a system and method that lessens the burden of IT administration yet leverages the existing network infrastructure to allow for scalable and fault-tolerant configurations of network systems. What is also needed is a method for enabling an operating system (OS) or a platform-related update to be disseminated to workstations in the network in an efficient manner. What is further needed is a method for distributing configuration tasks so that a peer node, and even possibly an IT server, may fail without impeding the provisioning/management of the network that the IT server manages.